Monthly archives for October, 2014

Each Halloween film fans are bombarded with media recollections and reminders of various titles for the occasion — ghost stories, Frankenstein movies, Dracula pictures, perhaps a slash and gore outing for two, and so on.

This time, rather than trot out the familiar genres and titles, we thought we’d make things a bit more personal by citing the films that scared the hell out of — us. These movies are classics in that they still frighten years after they first came out, no matter how many viewings.

Perhaps we’re a bit jaded, but there aren’t that many movies from the classic period — and the more contemporary one as well — that still alarm us. But here are a few titles that definitely do.

Joe’s not much into horror films but his favorite scary movie IS a classic, The Birds. He finds that Alfred Hitchcock film more frightening than any so called “slasher” flick.

If you haven’t seen The Birds lately, give it a whirl. Not too long ago the 1963 movie received some fresh publicity thanks to a recent HBO film about Hitch and his “supposed” obsession with the star of The Birds, Tippi Hedren.

Hedren, known today mostly as the mother of Melanie Griffith, was a model back in the late 50s. She was Hitchcock’s choice to replace Grace Kelly, who bowed out of the project after pressure from the folks in Monaco, who didn’t think it seemly for their princess to be working. Hedren only made two films with Hitchcock. She’s dreadful in Marnie, but passable in The Birds. They, after all, are the real stars.

There are many things to admire about The Birds, including the special effects that impressed audiences long before GCI became part of Hollywood’s technological arsenal.

Frank largely avoids contemporary horror movies post 1974’s The Texas Chain SawMassacre (which he liked). Still, there are two movies of those which he has seen that so frightened the dickens out of him that he still can’t bring himself to re-watch them.

One is a genuine classic, the only movie that actor Charles Laughton ever directed. It’s 1955’s Night of the Hunter, in which a deranged preacher (Robert Mitchum) viciously threatens an old woman (Lillian Gish) and two young children. The movie is evocatively shot, meticulously acted and scary as hell. Be sure to watch in daytime.

Mitchum reappears once more — this time as a vengeful ex-con seeking to wipe out the family of an upright Florida lawyer (Gregory Peck) — in 1962’s Cape Fear. The movie was remade in 1991 by director Martin Scorsese with Robert DeNiro taking the Mitchum role. Skip the remake and take a look at the original. It is a grueling picture, and one that you should see — once.

Frank still finds it hard to view Hitchcock’s mighty classic, 1960’s Psycho, the slasher-thriller prototype, at night. Credit a good part of this fear factor to the movie’s sensationally frightening score by the great composer Bernard Herrmann.

Any movie with Maria Ouspenskaya in it is bound to get a rise out of Frank. Ditto for Gale Sondergard, who is truly alarming in William Wyler’s 1940 melodrama starring Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall, The Letter.

And let’s not overlook Gene Tierney’s chillingly deranged performance in 1945’s Leave Her To Heaven. On the film noir front, check out Robert Ryan’s obsessively menacing turn in FredZinnemann’s 1949 outing, Act of Violence.

Ok. Those are some of the titles that scare the bejesus out of us. We’d love to hear about your choices of the movies that really frighten — AND BOO TO YOU.

A couple of weeks ago we told you of running into a copy of a 1949 Motion Picture Encyclopedia. It’s fun to leaf through and see what was going on in the industry 65 years ago.

Each of the major studios announced their product for the year. Paramount boasted of some twenty productions, including CecilB. DeMille‘s upcoming blockbuster, Samson and Delilah. And while the critics didn’t rave the public flocked to see it.

There were films with stars past their prime (Bride of Vengeance, with Paulette Goddard), films with stars making their film debuts (My Friend Irma, with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), and films with the stalwarts, Bob Hope (pictured above with Lucille Ball) and BingCrosby.

Only one film announced, Bitter Victory, would have a title change before release. The Hal Wallis production starring Robert Cummings, Lizabeth Scott and Diana Lynn was renamed Paid in Full.

But, actually, of all the films Paramount released that year only one, The Heiress, would prove to be a classic.

What was even more interesting is that Paramount announced a few of its 1950 pictures in this ’49 yearbook. Barbara Stanwyck would star in three films for the studio, so would Alan Ladd.

For these movies, which were still in production, there was a small footnote that the titles were tentative. Ladd’s After Midnight became Captain Carey, U.S.A. and Stanwyck’s I Married a Dead Man (from a famous short story by CornellWoolrich,) was retitled No Man of Her Own. Yes, yes, we know that was the title of a Gable/Lombard film back in the early 30s.

Ladd’s second feature, Postal Inspector became Appointment With Danger and he never made the third film. Who did the studio think he was? Stanwyck?

Besides Eagles of the Navy, which was supposed to re-team Ladd with William Bendix, two other of the announced features never made it to the screen — The Mack Sennett Story which was to star Betty Hutton and John Lund (who’d already done a fictional account of silent star Pearl White with The Perils ofPauline) and a film called Counter Intelligence which would have paired Ray Milland with Gene Tierney.

Hal Wallis had great hopes for September starring Joan Fontaine (it became September Affair), and the studio was banking on another big hit with Hope and Ball. They’d scored big with Sorrowful Jones so Paramount dusted off an old chestnut, The Ruggles of Red Gap and renamed it Where Men Are Men, but eventually called it Fancy Pants.

Once again, out of all the Paramount releases for 1950 one would prove an everlasting classic, Sunset Boulevard.

So ok — just how much did you know about the great lover (pictured above with Manpower costar Marlene Dietrich), screen tough guy and off-camera softie?

Time to find out. To review the questions for Monday’s George Raft Quiz, just scroll down one blog and there they are. Here we go:

1) Answer: Our apologies; this is a trick question. Raft took up with ALL four choices. Carole Lombard before Clark Gable, Betty Grable before HarryJames and Norma Shearer after Irving Thalberg. Virginia Pine was a socialite and early romance.

2) Answer: Owney Madden, the hard-bitten New York mobster who at one time owned and operated Harlem’s Cotton Club. During the Prohibition, Raft drove a lookout car for Madden, escorting shipments of illegal booze. He and Madden remained longtime pals.

3) Answer: b) Peter Lorre. Jimmy Cagney, who admired Raft, relates the following: Lorre, it seems, assumed that George’s natural gentleness made him an easy mark. Lorre felt greatly superior to George, regarding him as a lowbrow. During rehearsals, Lorre kept trying to guide Raft to his mark by grabbing his arm. Said Raft, ‘Don’t take my arm. Just tell me what you’ve got in mind.’ Lorre chose to ignore the warning. Once more Lorre took forceful charge and bang! Lorre got smacked right between the eyes, knocking him ass over teakettle. Then George said very nicely, ‘I told you not to do that.’ Mr. Lorre didn’t do it again. (The picture was probably 1943’s Background toDanger.)

4) Answer: Rudolph Valentino.

5) Answer: a) and d). Raft did indeed had reservations about John Huston as a tyro director. He also shunned remakes, which ruled out The Maltese Falcon since it had been made twice before — in 1931 and 1936 (Satan Met A Lady).

6) Answer: d) Raft really did feel unsuited to the part of Rick Blaine in Casablanca. As Raft biographer Lewis Yablonsky observed: With Bogart as beneficiary, Raft turned down more parts in films which are now considered Hollywood classics.

7) Answer: d) George Ranft. As a young man, the actor dropped the “n.”

8) Answer: a) Paul Muni, the star of 1932’s Scarface, in which Raft played a key supporting role. Without doubt Muni was the greatest actor I’ve ever worked with, said Raft.

9) Answer: Raft was sitting in Lombard’s studio dressing room one day. The blond star suddenly got undressed. I didn’t know what the hell to do, remembered Raft. She’s talking away and mixing peroxide with some other liquid in a bowl. Still talking casually, with a piece of cotton she begins to apply the liquid to dye the hair around her honeypot. She glanced up, saw my amazed look, and smiled, ‘Relax, Georgie, I’m just making my collar and cuffs match.’

10) Answer: Allied Artists’ 1961 biopic The George Raft Story, starring Ray Danton as Raft and Jayne Mansfield as one of his many girlfriends.

Did he stupidly turn down more hit roles in classic hit films than any other actor in movie history?

Despite his many tough guy roles, is it true that he was shy offscreen, and might even have been considered a momma’s boy? That he loved perfume — on himself? (C’mon. We’re talking George Raft here.)

We’ve written a fair amount about Raft but this marks his debut in the Monday Quiz spotlight. We are indebted here to author Lewis Yablonsky’s 1974 biography, GeorgeRaft, for authoritatively clearing up these and many other questions about one of the biggest stars of the early classic Hollywood period.

So how much do you know about GR? Let’s begin our quiz, and find out. (As usual, answers tomorrow.)

1) Question: Even by Hollywood standards of the day, Raft was known as a busy lover held hostage by a woman he married before he became famous, and couldn’t legally shed. To make up for his marital misery, he took up with which of the following? a) Betty Grable; b) Carole Lombard; c) Virginia Pine; or d) Norma Shearer.

2) Question: Raft really did start out his young adult life by working for the mob. Which of these gangsters was he closest to? a) Al Capone; b) Nucky Johnson; c) Owney Madden or d) Bugsy Siegel.

3) Question: Raft was regarded as a gentle person despite his screen image, although he had a temper that would occasionally erupt in violence on the set. Which one of the following actors learned this first hand? a) Paul Muni; b) Peter Lorre; c) Sydney Greenstreet; or d) Humphrey Bogart?

4) Question: It’s true that in his younger, pre-Hollywood days Raft once worked with someone by the name of Rodolpho Guglielmo as a male “escort” in various New York City dance halls. Can you provide the latter’s marquee identity as a world famous Hollywood celebrity?

5) Question: Why on earth did Raft turn down the Sam Spade role in 1941’s The MalteseFalcon, the role that propelled Bogart into the ranks of Hollywood stardom? a) Raft was hesitant because the movie was John Huston’s first time out as director; b) He didn’t like PeterLorre; c) He didn’t like Sydney Greenstreet; or d) Raft’s contract with Warner Brothers stipulated that he wouldn’t star in a remake.

6) Question: Why in the world did Raft turn down the role of RickBlaine in 1942’s Casablanca, the role that made Bogart an even bigger international star? a) Raft didn’t care for Ingrid Bergman; b) He disliked Peter Lorre; c) He had a contentious relationship with director Michael Curtiz; or d) Raft didn’t feel the role was right for him.

7) Question: What was Raft’s name at birth on Sept. 26, 1895, in New York City’s tough Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood? a) Hymie Rosenberg; b) George O’Brien; c) Ace Binkstrop; or d) George Ranft?

9) Question: Can you tell us just how Raft discovered that costar and lover CarolLombard was not a natural blond? (Let your imagination take over on this one.)

10) Question: Raft, who died in 1980, was one of the few Hollywood actor’s to have a movie based on his life filmed while he was still alive. Can you name the title of the biopic, and the actor who played Raft?

Hey guys, While I scored a decent 7/10, I’ve gotta call foul on #4 — (Judy) Garland was born in 1922, making her b) 17 when she worked with “Uncle Buzz” in 1939.

And was (Berkeley’s) his assessment of wanting him “right there when the camera was photographing her” self-delusional?

I’ve always heard that while (Mickey) Rooney loved the intensive rehearsals Berkeley insisted on, that Garland (the original ‘quick study’) loathed them, and eventually him. (She did after all have him fired from “Annie Get Your Gun” and replaced with Chuck Walters, before being sacked herself.)

And I’ve always heard of an alleged drunken hit-and-run covered up by HowardStrickling and the MGM brass. Any truth there? Thanks!

Thank you, Jeff. Just to refresh, the quiz question referred to was: 4) Question: Berkeley claims credit for “all the musicals teaming Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.” How old was Garland when she worked with him? a) 14; b) 17; c) 15; or d) 21.

You are correct Jeff. Frances Ethel Gumm was born (in a trunk?) on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minn. So, she was indeed 17 when she costarred with Rooney in 1939’s Babes In Arms. She was 15 when she appeared in 1937’s Broadway Melody 1938, not directed by Berkeley.

As for Garland’s working arrangement with Berkeley, he claims that “she would not do a scene unless I stood by the camera, and afterward she would ask me how she looked and if she had done all right.” It should be added that Berkeley was known for problems controlling his alcoholic intake.

According to author E.J. Fleming’s book, The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, HowardStrickling and the MGM Publicity Machine, Berkeley was driving home from a party on the night of Sept. 8, 1935, when his car crossed the median on the Pacific Coast Highway and slammed into two cars killing three and injuring two others. MGM immediately sprung into action, mounting an expensive legal campaign that resulted in two hung juries and at least $100,000 in civil suit settlements. To the extent possible the matter was swept under the carpet.

Hey guys, do you really think “crotchety” is the correct description for TVs “Hazel”? I recall her as more of a well-meaning, sentimental busy-body.

Thanks, Patricia. Joe remembers her character, played by Booth on the tube, as “crotchety” but perhaps he’s thinking more of the comic strip and less of the TV show. Can we split the difference and call her a “crotchety busy-body?”

We sometimes forget the enormous impact Hollywood (read the Motion Picture Industry) had and still has on international culture

A recent biographical sketch of the remarkable Brazilian popular novelist R. F. Lucchetti — published in the Oct. 18 edition of The New York Times —reminded us.

Lucchetti has written over 1500 pulp fiction novels, and although he has never traveled outside his native country he often cites in detail American locales, terms, and products in his work.

How? Why? Well, you guessed it.

He was a great fan of American movies, especially B films of the 1940s, just the kinds of movies we love. Luchetti was particularly inspired by the films of “Scream Queen” EvelynAnkers, our star of the week.

Ankers was born in 1918 in Chile to British parents, and made her first films in England in the 1930s. But she hit her stride in Hollywood playing opposite Lon Chaney Jr. in the Wolfman movies. She costarred with Chaney in 1941’s The Wolf Man when she was only 23.

Ankers made more than 50 films in a career that spanned two decades. Her stock in trade was playing cultured young leading ladies, which fit nicely with her British heritage, with strong vocal chords. Her first movie for Universal was opposite the studio’s reigning comics at the time, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The movie was Hold That Ghost.

Ankers would later graduate to roles in 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein, 1943’s Son ofDracula, and 1945’s The Frozen Ghost. She married actor Richard Denning in 1942, her one and only husband.

One reason you may not have heard of Ankers is that her career was so short. A mere nine years after she first screamed at Lon Chaney Jr., she retired from making movies (at age 32).

She and Denning moved to Hawaii, and Ankers died there of ovarian cancer in 1985. She was only 67. We wonder if she ever realized that all that powerhouse vocalizing onscreen would wind up inspiring a once obscure writer who is now hailed as “Brazil’s eminence of pulp fiction.”

Here are the answers to yesterday’s quiz about that “forgotten star” Susan Hayward.

As mentioned, we employed the term “forgotten” (our opinion) a while back, and have since received some gentle pushback from various readers. Here are two typical responses.

From Philippe, who takes exception to our view that while Hayward was a big star in her time, she is less remembered today largely because she starred in forgettable movies.

No classic films in Susan Hayward’s filmography!!?

Here in Europe, “Canyon Passage (1946), ” House of Strangers” (1949) ,”The Lusty Men” (1952) (regarded as a true American film masterpiece from Nicholas Ray),”Garden of Evil ” (1954) and of course Robert Wise’s powerful “I Want To Live” are regarded as top classic movies and Hayward praised as a terrific actress.

And this from reader Dottie: I remember her since I was a kid. Her acting was strong, realistic, yet can be tender. She is also a real beauty. Miss those solid performances.

Ok, then, let’s see how much you really do know about Susan Hayward. (To review questions, just scroll down a tad to our Monday Quiz blog.) Our inspiration here is the definitive 1980 biography by author Beverly Linet, Susan Hayward: Portrait of a Survivor.

1) Answer: c) Edith Marrenner was born in Brooklyn on June 30, 1917.

2) Answer: b) False. Hayward was a diminutive, red-headed fireball, nothing if not determined. No shrinking violet. She once said: I spent an unhappy, penniless childhood in Brooklyn. I had to slug my way up in a town called Hollywood where people love to trample you to death. I don’t relax because I don’t know how. I don’t want to know how. Life is too short to relax.

3) Answer: d) John Wayne. Although they costarred together, it appears they never made the romantic connection that Hayward at varying times made with Jeff Chandler, Howard Hughes and Don ‘Red’ Barry.

4) Answer: a) True.

5) Answer: Hayward won her best actress Oscar for 1958’s I Want To Live. She plays a prostitute who pleads her innocence of a murder rap.

6) Answer: c) Alcoholics. Hayward, for example, won an Oscar nomination for her role as an alcoholic wife in 1947’s Smash-Up.

10) Answer: Hayward, Dick Powell, John Wayne and Agnes Moorehead all died of of various forms of cancer believed to be connected to radiation exposure on the Saint George, Utah location of 1955’s The Conqueror. The town was near an above-ground atomic test blast site in the adjacent Nevada desert, heavily used during the Fifties. Wayne, Hayward and Moorehead were in the cast. Wayne died of stomach cancer. Moorehead died of uterine cancer. Powell, who died of cancer of the lymph glands in 1963, directed the movie. Hayward died of a brain tumor on March 14, 1975, just three months shy of her 58th birthday.

Ok, we admit it. We may — just may — have been unfair to Susan Hayward.

Our July 14, 2011 blog, SUSAN HAYWARD — FORGOTTEN STAR, we wrote the following: It’s not easy for either of us at the moment to come up with the name of a bigger Hollywood star of the Forties and Fifties less remembered today than Susan Hayward.

Well we’ve received quite a bit of email about this ever since, usually citing her underrated movies and pointing out how talented Hayward actually was. We remain unconvinced but perhaps a tad less adamant in our original position.

As a nod to our “forgotten” star, we have elevated her to our Monday Quiz status, reserved for Hollywood luminaries only. How much do you know about Susan Hayward? Try our Quiz and find out. (Answers tomorrow.) Our inspiration here is the definitive 1980 biography by author Beverly Linet, Susan Hayward: Portrait of a Survivor.

3) Question: Which of the following did NOT have a romantic interlude offscreen with Hayward? a) Jeff Chandler; b) Howard Hughes; c) Don ‘Red’ Barry; ord) John Wayne.

4) Question: Although her career got started in 1938 as an unknown, by 1953 Hayward was voted by American exhibitors the ninth biggest box office star in Hollywood. a) True; or b) False?

5) Question: After multiple Oscar nominations, Hayward finally won the best actress prize for which movie? a) Smash-Up; b) I Married A Witch; c) I Want To Live; or d) My Foolish Heart.

6) Question: Hayward often found herself starring in “women’s pictures” heavy on the melodrama. What specific role did she often find herself playing? a) career women; b) red-headed sexpots; c) alcoholics; or d) home wreckers.

7) Question: Hayward was one of many actresses who unsuccessfully tried out for the the Scarlett O’Hara role in Gone With The Wind. a) True; or b) False?

8) Question: Hayward’s career at one big Hollywood studio is said to have ended after about a year because the actress refused the sexual importunings of the studio boss. Can you name the studio, and the boss involved?

9) Question: Although considered a Brooklyn-born redhead, Hayward was remarkably accomplished playing in westerns. Which of her titles was NOT a western: a) Canyon Passage; b) The Lusty Men; c) Garden of Evil; or d) The Conqueror.

10) Question: Hayward had something in common with Agnes Moorhead, John Wayne and Dick Powell. What on earth could it be?